1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program generator which reads an image composed of characters and line graphics and transforms the contents of said image into coded information.
2. Description of Background
Apparatus by which a program written in a specified language can be generated from a flowchart is already sold on the market but all commercial products of such apparatus are intended to handle flowcharts that have been drawn on systems such as those having CAD capabilities. A technique associated with such apparatus was reported in "A Technique for Developing Built-in System Oriented Software by 1444 Graphic Representation" at the Commemorative National Conference celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers. With a view to realizing efficient software development, this technique utilizes the CAD capabilities of a computer in all stages ranging from software design to source code generation and combines the necessary parts to generate a flowchart which is then converted to a program.
However, in writing a new program, we rarely draw a flowchart on a trial-and-error basis using the program generator described above and, in almost all cases, we first draw a flowchart on paper that is half complete and then enter it into the program generator. In other words, the prior art method of program generation has the disadvantage that it involves two overlapping operations, one for drawing a flowchart on paper and the other for drawing the same flowchart on the apparatus. A further problem is that the operator has to learn interfaces (e.g. operating procedures) that are peculiar to the apparatus and this often increases the complexity of overall operations.